Major Dutch publisher abandons DRM

De Arbeiderspers/A W Bruna, the largest publisher in the Netherlands, has removed DRM from its e-books for the first time.

All of the publisher's e-books, aside from those sold via the iBooks store, will be sold with a watermark attached rather than any DRM system.

Without Adobe DRM attached, customers will be able to download their e-books on to any device, including phones, tablets and dedicated e-readers. People will also be able to share books.

The watermark will mean that any copies of the book which are spread online can be traced back to the original source.

De Arbeiderspers/A W Bruna currently has 1,200 e-books available, and plans to digitise more of its backlist in 2013.

Paul Auster, Michel Houllebecq, Frederick Forsyth and Ian Fleming are among the authors with e-books on the publisher's lists.

C.e.o. Joop Boezeman said: "Digital or paper books, we are proud of the story that is told within the book. This means that the digital form should also be an attractive offering. With watermarking, we are one more step in the right direction."